Customer Reviews

The Story of the World, Activity book two, The Middle Ages: From the fall of Rome to the rise of the Renaissance

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is our second year using Story of the World as our history spine for my K and 4th grader. The activity guide is similar to Vol. 1, although the difficulty level of work has increased slightly. This guide is written for 2-5th graders.

As in SOTW 1, this activity guide has review questions, sample narrations, additional reading suggestions, map work and hands on activities, with review cards every four chapters. What I love best about SOTW is that I can read the main story to my children and use this activity guide to pick and choose what *we* want to do with our history lesson. They provide the base, yet I have the flexibility to do what works best within our school. If we are interested in a subject, we can do more activities, or we can skip most and move on. I take the suggested reading lists to the library, where I can either choose from what's on hand, or I can find additional books on the same subject. I appreciate Susan Wise Bauer's notations on grade level appropriateness for the books, so I can know ahead of time if it's something my 10 yo can read on her own, or if it's something I'll be reading from to both of my kids.

I generally ask review questions of both my children, then my 10 yo does the written narration and map work. Both kids do the coloring pages, and my younger child listens to some of our additional reading. Permission is given in the book to make copies of pages for a second child within your own family.

This book is taking us longer than a year to complete, but that's because we are having a lot of fun with it. I am enjoying history as much as the kids. The activity guide is a marvelous addition to the base book, and I wouldn't want to do history in any other way.

As commented in reviews of the Vol. 1 activity book, there are more typographical errors than one would expect. This is unfortunate, but I appreciate the effort made to get these books out as quickly as possible.

I love the copy pages and maps in this book. Also, the suggested reading lists are very helpful as are the chapter questions and review. However, I find about 70% of the activities are too complicated for a child to complete, maybe even for an adult to complete. Even if you want to do the activities you need much planning time to gather supplies. Otherwise it's an excellent buy.

First the positive
Each book in this series is a complete introduction to history within a certain time frame, for example this one is about the Middle Ages. You will have to add your own history book to go along with this, this is just the lesson plan/idea book. (Usorne History of the World would be one example of the type of history book you might buy).

This book has a lot of ideas and activities in it all relating to the Middle Ages. There is cooking recipes, craft ideas, coloring pages, and so on. It is very comprehensive.

The one Negative Comment. It is very big and very thick. A large part of this is because it gets into the very basic ideas that most people do not need help remembering. That is, it provides a list of questions for each subject and page read. The questions are very basic and many of them you could think of yourself. However, this would be helpful for a first time home school mother who is not sure where to start.

Well worth the money. Enjoy.

I gave high praise for the textbook of SOTW, but have serious reservations about the activity book.

My criticism is that I feel the author has compromised some in the area of political correctness in this volume which seems primarily marketed to Christians. There are activities which address non-Christian philosophies in an aura of correctness atypical for this author. I was deeply disappointed when some of the activities even involved having our students act out some customs of other religions including activities using their statements of their faith. This was truly unexpected in what I thought was a Christian approached book.

I wholeheartedly agree with teaching our children, at a responsible age level, the major tenets of other religions and agree to teach respect for all cultures and peoples. I disagree however with statements like: "The words of (other religion's god) should always be expressed with as much beauty and care as possible." This preceded an activity where the other religion's confession of faith is laminated on a tile for display in our home. ?!? Other such statements are similarly stated in a way that infers validity and authority. I highly doubt that the other religion markets books praising Christianity and recommending that our statement of faith be displayed in their homes.

Many of the suggested reading contain strong mythological, spirit references in relation to other cultures. I think it is misguided to blur the lines between fantasy and reality at the young ages this curriculum is designed to educate. For instance, the activity book recommends the child's picture book "Sundiata, Lion King of Mali" and describes it as "A picture-book account of the great thirteenth-century Mali king who grew from a weak child into a strong warrior." Sounds innocent and historical enough. The book begins with the lines "Listen to me, children of the Bright Country, and hear the great deeds of ages past. The words I speak are those of my father and his father before him, pure and full of truth." It goes on to talk about how Sundiata was "blessed" by the spirits of buffalo and lion. Witches try to kill Sundiata, but their "magic is useless without his anger." The "evil land was ruled by Sumanguru, a sorcerer king, whose huge armies and powerful magic were greatly feared." Much is stated as authority and TRUTH mixed in with history. This could be explained to and discussed with an older child, but the curriculum is recommended for younger elementary children.

The maps are great (though way too easy for mid-late elementary) and there are many fun activities. It is tremendously helpful to have the question and answers that go along with the textbook.

I would strongly caution, however, that the Christian parents scour the suggested activities and remove unwanted student pages prior to embarking into this book.

I purchased the Activity Two Book because my son enjoyed the Activity One Book. This book is appropriate for Grades 1 through 4 and should be purchased "together" with The Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages book. The activity book can be used in families with different-aged children. Each chapter includes a narration exercise, question and answer for oral and written review, cut-outs, coloring, maps, craft projects as well as a thorough list of suggested readings. There is something for everyone here to make learning history an enjoyable experience.

I love this book. It has helped a lot for our history. My son is a very hands on person, so this book has help tremendously in this area. What we do is read a section of the book. Then I have him copy the narration ideas. After that we read one of the books that are suggested for further study. If there is a color page or activity that pertains to the lesson for that day we will also do this. I am using this for our history curriculum exclusively since everything is written out for us and all I have to do is copy a worksheet page or order a book from the library.

We love this book! It has everything I could ask for in activities for our history studies (except someone else to teach it!) My daughter loves to do the map work and make crafts that correspond with her lessons!

There is no doubt that this series is well written. My son read each of the four books in the span of less than a week. They really piqued his interest. These books will let you know what really turns on your child, but you'll need to go on for further, more in-depth review.

Can't recommend this series enough for the pre-teen set!

I will be using this for our history in our home education. So far, while reviewing and finding what is needed for activities, I am anxious to get started! My boys love hands on activity so I think they will truly find history is awesome! I love the idea of making things and using recipes too. I think this is going to make the learning fun and will be something my boys will always remember!